


s 






I ro 



In jUfmoFiam. 



John S. Wright. 




3n (WUmoriatn. 



JOHN S.WRIGHT, 

. AN ADDRESS 

Delivered before the Chicago Historical Society, 
Friday Evening, July 21, 1885. 

BY / 

AUGUSTINE W. WRIGHT. 




CHICAGO: 

FERGUS PRINTING COMPANY 
1885. 



6»P 









CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



Chicago, July 23, 1885. 

Augustine W. Wright, Esq., 

Dear Sir: — I have the honor, in behalf of the Chi- 
cago Historical Society, to tender to yourself and 
brother its thanks for the beautiful oil portrait of your 
father, the late John S. Wright, which you generously 
presented at the quarterly meeting on the 21st inst. 

I also beg to inform you that, on the motion of 
Hon. William Bross, the thanks of the Society were 
unanimously tendered to you, and a request made that 
you furnish a copy of the biographical memoir of your 
father which you read on that occasion, that the same 
may be published. Very respectfully, 

Albert D. Hager, 

Secretary. 



\ 



3n Qtlemoriam. 



JOHN S. WRIGHT 



Gentlemen of the Chicago Historical Society and 
Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I HAVE the honor of addressing you this evening 
upon the life of my father, the late John S. 
Wright, although I realize fully the truth of Barham's 
statement, that "It may, perhaps, be questioned 
whether under any circumstances a very near rela- 
tive is a fit person to fill the office of biographer; 
independently of the prepossession by which he must 
almost necessarily be swayed, and of the restraint 
which a consciousness of its existence induces, expres- 
sions both of eulogy and the reverse seem to fall 
ungracefully from his pen. The writer has no immu- 
nity to plead in the present instance from the effects 
of this law." 

In 1832, the population of Chicago was estimated 
at 150. Today it is estimated at 700,000! What 
has caused this wondrous growth, a growth unequalled 
in rapidity by any city of the known world? Some 
will answer, it is due to nature, to the wonderful 



natural advantages surrounding the site upon which 
this proud city was to be erected. I, however, affirm 
that it is to be attributed not less to the remarkable 
character of those who, in the early days, ventured 
from their homes into this almost unknown region and 
by their wonderful energy and unequalled ability gave 
an impetus to the growth of the would-be city, that 
has gathered force as it rolled, and has resulted in the 
Chicago of today! 

"The means that heaven yields must be embraced, and 
not neglected; else if heaven would and we will not, heaven's 
offer we refuse." 

No city was ever the happy possessor of greater 
capacity in its founders! John S. Wright wrote, "A 
set of men superior to the early settlers of Chicago 
were never brought together." Only the most enter- 
prising and energetic ventured upon the long and try- 
ing journey to the then " Far- West ", and those early 
settlers have left their impress upon every profession, 
every occupation in the life of this great metropolis! 
Their fame is not bounded by the confines of this vast 
continent, but has extended to every civilized country 
upon the globe! Among those who thus cast their all 
with Chicago was the subject of this brief address, 
and to no other individual is this city more indebted. 

In the quaint old graveyard at Colchester, Conn., 
can be seen tombs of generations of the Wrights. 
Capt. Joseph Wright moved from Wethersfield to 
Colchester, where he purchased a large farm. He 
died Sept. 10, 1766, aged Sy. His wife was Mary 
Dudley from Guilford. Timothy was their second 



son. He died in 1756, aged 44. His wife was 
Mehetible Brainard of E. Haddam. Their sixth 
child was John, born May 27, 1745. He died June 6, 
1826. His wife was Lucy Sears of E. Haddam. 
Their fourth child was John, born Nov. 25, 1783. 
He died in Chicago, 111., Sept. 20, 1840. He was 
born and raised on a large farm near Colchester, 
Conn., and having a store in Sheffield, Mass., he 
there, in 18 14, married Huldah, a daughter, eldest but 
one, of Stephen Dewey. At the latter's house in 
Sheffield their eldest child, the subject of this sketch, 
was born July 16th, 181 5. He was named John 
Stephen after both grandfathers. 

In 18 1 5-16, John Wright traveled for his health on 
horseback from Massachusetts into Illinois, and thence 
to New Orleans, whereby he acquired a knowledge of 
the country, and became much impressed with its 
promise for the future. He moved from Sheffield to 
Williamstown in 1822, where the mountain scenery 
is grandest of Berkshire, to have the benefits of the 
college in educating his children, having three sons at 
that time, John S., Timothy, and Walter. He con- 
tinued a merchant. A brother of his wife, very dear 
to her, Prof. Chester Dewey, was in the college, and 
Mr. Wright at once took one of the best students,, 
Mr. Willey from New Hampshire, into his family, 
giving him board for his teaching the children. The 
mother had been the teacher exclusively. She was a 
highly-cultivated lady in every respect, and taught her 
son, John S., before he was seven years of age, all the 
arithmetic, English grammar, and geography that he 



8 

ever studied. Mr. Willey put him at Latin, which 
was his chief study for four years. Both parents were 
very superior in mental powers, perfectly united in 
family affairs, most devoted to their children! At ten, 
he was put with his brother, Timothy, with Mr. Brad- 
ley, going to his room in college to study and recite, 
and began Greek. After two or three years, an 
academy was started under a Mr. Canning, and to 
Latin and Greek, Algebra and Euclid were added. 
His excellent uncle, Prof. Chester Dewey, had such a 
fame for interesting scholars in study and arousing 
their ambition, that Mr. Pomeroy of Pittsfield, father 
of his then wife, built for him the Berkshire Gymna- 
sium, and induced him to take charge of it as a higher 
field of usefulness. To him John S. was sent in 
1829-30, and was then taken into his father's store as 
a clerk for six months, with an interest in part of the 
business, giving a trial of his book-keeping, which had 
been well mastered. The profits paid for another 
year's schooling at his excellent uncle's, who loved 
him as his own children, and never chided for any- 
thing, except that love of chess prevented adequate 
out-door exercise. Ambition was aroused equal to 
his uncle's pride and confidence, and the two and one- 
half years' discipline of head and heart w T as worth 
double all other education, except that of his adored 
parents ! Yet the great and good Dr. Griffin, Pro- 
fessors Kellogg, Albert and Mark Hopkins, who suc- 
ceeded Dr. G. in the presidency of the college, had 
ever a pleasant word of encouragement, bespeaking 
strong interest that helped abundantly his ambition to 



make himself a man. I have heard that Prof. Hopkins 
said, his was one of the brightest minds that ever 
came under his instruction. 

The first Sunday in June, 1832, he became a mem- 
ber of the Congregational Church. The wish so dear 
to many a New T -England mother was not absent from 
his own, and she had always trained him to love the 
ministry and study for that profession ; but he pre- 
ferred an active business life as giving far greater 
opportunities for rising, and he expected to enter a 
store at New York; but his uncle, Prof. Dewey, said 
to him: "Cousin John, you will do no such thing; 
your father intends to take you to the 'Far-West' and 
let you make a man of yourself; and that s my own 
advice as the best way to bring you out." The lad's 
satisfaction was intense, and in a few weeks he went 
home, expecting to go with his father to New York to 
get a stock of merchandise. The cholera then first 
appearing, the father thought it best not to take his 
son ; but the next day brought a letter from his 
brother, Amasa, living in Brooklyn, saying the 
cholera had subsided. The son started for the great 
city, and found his way to his uncle's, to their great 
surprise. But he told them he had no idea of going 
way off West, without seeing New York ; that he 
hoped to help build a great city out there. Goods, 
some $5000 or $6000 worth, were bought and shipped 
to Buffalo, where from thence they had no idea. The 
Black- Hawk War had that year called attention to 
Chicago, where was Fort Dearborn; and a schooner 
being found at Buffalo thither bound, the goods to 



IO 

arrive were contracted for transportation. The plan 
was to get them to Galena, then prominent for its 
lead-mines. The trip from Williamstown, then con- 
suming nearly three weeks, would be interesting to 
contrast with the present. 

The father and son arrived at Chicago, October 29, 

1832. In a few days the father purchased a horse to 
explore the land, going to Fox River and down it 
some thirty miles, and striking back for Chicago. He 
stopped a night at a place afterward called Plainfield, 
with a Mr. Searcy, who had a lot 80 x 150 feet, on 
north side of Lake Street, a little east of Clark, in 
Chicago. This Mr. Wright bought for $100. In 

1833, he built a hewed-log store on this lot. It was 
called the ''Prairie Store," -being so far back from the 
line of business. Before the fire, it paid among the 
best rents in Chicago. The goods in part only arriv- 
ing, some not reaching Buffalo when the vessel had to 
sail, John S. rented a store-room in a log- building of 
Mark Beaubien, with whom he boarded. Beaubien 
had met them on the South Branch, where they stood 
with the wagon, waiting to go over to another hotel. 
He was a large, fine-looking Frenchman, and came 
up, touching his hat and bowing, said, "You going to 
stop here?" Mr. Wright said, "Yes, we had heard 
the hotel was on the other side." Said Beaubien, 
with usual emphasis, raising and lowering his arm 
with a vengeance, "This my house. Me keep tavern 

like 

('What I decline to repeat; 
It was th name af a bad place, for mention unmeet';) 

play de fiddle like damnation; you no stop with me ? " 



1 1 

Mr. Wright was so amused that with a hearty laugh 
he accepted the cordial invitation. 

John S. had unpacked, marked, and was selling the 
goods at ioo to 150 per cent advance, having learned 
of Dole, Hogan, and Bob Kinzie, friends already, what 
they charged. So when his father returned, he never 
said a word about Galena, but told his son with much 
glee of his lot purchase ; but the son "went him 
better" by telling him that Philo Carpenter had pro- 
posed, just after he started to see the country, that 
they should hold the chain for each other, and get 
Mr. Herrington to survey for each a quarter-section, 
to get at $1.25 per acre by pre-emption. The father 
had a severe contest with Hiram Pearson to get his 
quarter- section, but succeeded, although under the 
adverse claim it was sold at $1000 per acre in 1836. 
It is now Wright's Addition to Chicago, and includes 
Union Park, and is worth millions. The son became 
very expert with the rifle, and shot prairie-chickens 
and snow-birds from the store-door, at the southeast 
corner of Lake and Market Streets. The father 
returned to Massachusetts in the fall, but came sud- 
denly upon the son in the spring, and opened his eyes 
with astonishment when he saw the store converted 
into a gunnery, and the goods all sold. He said 
naught to the son, but inquired of Mr. Dole about 
him, who said, "Never you fear for John. The boys 
(Hogan, Kercheval, Bob Kinzie, and Brady) have 
tried their best to get him into our frolics, but he was 
no go." He had spent the time studying the Greek 
classics, etc. He assisted in raising the third frame- 



12 



building in Chicago in February or March, 1833 — 
P. F. W. Peck's store. 

In 1834, Mr. John Wright removed his family to 
Chicago. In 1833, the Rev. Jeremiah Porter organ- 
ized the first Presbyterian church of all the North- 
west, except at Galena. Mr. Wright was one of the 
elders, and his son John S. an original member. 

John Wright lived until Sept. 20, 1840, and day by 
day had his original convictions strengthened that this 
was to be the site of a populous city. His wife died 
in Chicago, April 15, 1853, leaving an enviable record 
of good works. She was one of seven sisters, and 
the words of another may be applied to her: 

"Distinguished no less for grace and loveliness of person 
than for rare endowments of mind and heart, she grew up in 
her New-England home in an atmosphere of the purest chris- 
tian love and refinement; and giving up home and kindred, 
she went forth trustfully to share with her husband in all 
sweetness of patience and tenderness of devotion the hard- 
ships and trials of life in the log-dwelling at Chicago." 

The family home was for many years at the south- 
west corner of Michigan Avenue and Madison Street. 
She entered actively into every good work, and her 
charity never failed. From her John S. Wright in- 
herited most noble traits. 

The lad, John S., became at once imbued with a 
deep faith in the future of Chicago, and began to 
operate in real estate on his own account in 1834. 
He was not of age, but gave his father a lot valued at 
$2000, in December, 1835, for the remaining seven 
months of his minority. This was afterward returned 



13 

to him in the division of his father's estate. He pub- 
lished one of the first lithographic maps of this city 
early in 1834. It comprised Sections 9 and 16, and 
the fractional 10 and 15, bounded north by Chicago 
Avenue, south by Twelfth Street, west by Halsted 
Street, east by Lake Michigan. But only 10; the 
south half of 9, east of Jefferson Street; and the two 
or three north tiers of blocks of 16 were subdivided 
into lots ; all the rest was in squares and 40 x 80 acre 
lots. In 1836, the property he had acquired was 
valued at $300,000, and this he had accumulated with- 
out pecuniary assistance from his father. He pur- 
chased at one time over 7000 acres of canal lands, 
and probably owned a greater portion of Chicago than 
any other person. As stated, he was a member of 
the first Presbyterian church. He also assisted in 
organizing a Sunday-school, in which he taught a 
class, and was likewise secretary and librarian, carry- 
ing this the first Chicago Sunday-school library, of 20 
volumes, to and fro in his pocket-handkerchief. 

In 1836, in accordance with his father's wishes, he 
purchased a warehouse and dock lots for $23,000, to 
engage in the shipping business, as the father con- 
sidered it very desirable for the son of twenty-one to 
have regular occupation to promote good habits. His 
entire indebtedness at this time was about $25,000, 
and there was due him nearly $20,000, chiefly final 
payments upon real estate which he had sold; but the 
panic of 1837 brought ruin to many; his debtors 
could not pay, and by 1840, his property had all gone. 

In 1837, he erected the first public-schoolhouse of 



this city at his own expense ($507.93). It was on the 
church lot S.-W. cor. Clark and Washington sts. His 
mother was interested in an infant-school, and desir- 
ing a building, this dutiful and generous son erected 
it. This was the beginning of our public-school sys- 
tem, and for years he devoted much time and thought 
to educational matters. In 1839, he was manager of 
the Chicago Colonization Society, as well as trustee, 
secretary, and manager of the Union Agricultural 
Society. The farming interests engaged much of his 
attention, so that, in the fall of 1840, he began issuing 
The Prairie Farmer, hoping by practical agriculture 
to reach the leading farmers, the power of the West, 
upon the fundamental subject, common-school educa- 
tion! For some years he was sole editor, and retained 
an interest until the panic of 1857. Did time permit, 
I would fain dwell upon the value of this paper to all 
the Northwest. 

From 1840-5, he traveled in a buggy most of the 
time in all parts of the then West — Indiana, Illinois, 
Wisconsin, and Iowa — to become acquainted with in- 
fluential farmers, and to make them write for their 
paper, and advocate common schools. He became 
well informed about the country, and witnessed its 
rapid settlement, as well as the development of its 
unequalled, inexhaustible resources. In 1842, he got 
up the first State convention at Peoria, to promote an 
interest in common schools. It was a grand success, 
and he was made chairman of the committee to memo- 
rialize the legislature. Traveling then constantly to 
and fro about The Prairie Farmer, he had done noth- 



i5 

ing toward the memorial when he went to Springfield, 
but it was done, as he said, "after a fashion," and read 
by him in the senate-chamber to the joint committees 
of the senate and house upon common schools. Mon- 
day morning the memorial was offered in the senate, 
and Mr. Constable, from a Wabash county, and an 
entire stranger to him, arose upon the presentation, 
and said he had listened to its reading before the com- 
mittees, and he moved to print 10,000 copies that it 
was the best thing he ever saw or heard upon that 
^subject. Not a voice did he hear against it, but so 
;afraid was the lieutenant-governor (John Moore) of 
Yankee-school innovations that he pettishly declared 
the motion lost. Then 5000 was moved, and it 
passed unanimously. That started the efforts in the 
whole West for that great work. 

In 1845-6, he was in the East, and wrote a series 
of most valuable papers, appearing in The Commercial 
Advertise!', Evening Post, American Railroad Jour- 
naL etc., etc., urging the capitalists of the East to 
engage in the construction of railroads ; about the 
various agricultural products of the West, their profits, 
etc. ; the minerals, manufacturing advantages, the 
canal, etc., etc., and predicting that Illinois bonds, 
then worth 25 to 30 cents on the dollar, and three 
years of accrued interest not reckoned, so prevalent 
was the impression that the State debt could never be 
paid; that by 1858-9, Illinois zuould pay her full in- 
terest without any increase in the then rate of taxa- 
tion. Writing in i860, he said: "And for two years 
we have done this, and our bonds are above par!" 



i6 

Who can measure the value of these writings and the 
good they accomplished, not only for Chicago, but 
for the Northwest ? 

On Sept. i, 1846, he married, at the residence of 
Mrs. Jane C. Washington of Mt. Vernon, a niece of 
hers, Miss Catherine B. Turner, the youngest child of 
Henry S. Turner of Jefferson County, Virginia. She 
was handsome, witty, and accomplished, and her child- 
hood, passed chiefly at Mt. Vernon after her mother's 
death, had been such as comes to few of us. Aban- 
doning all the delights of Washington society, leaving 
her devoted friends and kindred, she came to the em- 
bryo city with her husband, as his mother had done 
before her, and for over a third of a century it has 
been her home. His marriage stirred ambition again 
to make money on Chicago property, and he bought 
most judiciously. In fact, in 1856, the ground -rent 
on two of the lots purchased for $13,500 was $7000 
per annum, and his real estate was then valued at over 
$600,000, a great fortune in those days. 

In 1847, he wrote a series of most valuable letters 
to the Boston Courier. These letters were com- 
menced to urge upon the Bostonians the importance 
and advantage to themselves of subscribing liberally 
to the stock of the Galena-and-Chicago Union Rail- 
road. In 1848, another series were published simul- 
taneously in The Boston Mining Journal and Rail- 
road Gazette, advocating the construction of railroads 
and presenting the advantages. His acquaintance 
was very large, and when the canal convention met 
in Chicago in 1847, ne could name each State's repre- 



i7 

sentatives in the procession as it passed by, personal 
acquaintances. Among his many friends were the 
Kennicotts. The "Old Doctor," as he was familiarly 
known, became the horticultural editor of The Prairie 
Farmer, while Hiram wTOte frequently also for the 
paper. Few among my older hearers have not en- 
joyed the hospitality of their delightful homes, and the 
friendship formed early in the forties, has now ex- 
tended to the third generation! 

In 1847, he proposed an extended system of parks 
for the three divisions of this city to be connected by 
boulevards. After the lapse of many years, this has 
been carried out, but at greatly-increased cost. Chi- 
cago owes not a little to his efforts in behalf of her 
park system. In 1848, he predicted that Chicago 
would increase in population twenty per cent per 
annum for five years, eighteen per cent per annum for 
the next five years. These were realized; but six- 
teen per cent for the next, and fourteen per cent for 
the succeeding five years, were not realized, and he 
considered the war an abundant reason. He calcu- 
lated twelve per cent for the next five years, and then 
ten per cent indefinitely. His prediction in 1861, that 
our population in 1886 would be one million, has not 
been realized. The United-States census shows the 
rate of increase for the entire country has diminished, 
and the many flourishing suburban towns, Pullman, 
South -Chicago, etc., etc., have absorbed what would 
otherwise have been an addition to this city's popula- 
tion, and were it not for them, he would not have 
been far wrong. Many of you will remember the 



i8 

ridicule his predictions excited. He was far in 
advance of his age! 

One who was afterward among the millionaires of 
Chicago objected to his efforts in behalf of the Galena- 
and- Chicago Union Railroad, arguing against it "be- 
cause railroads would stop the advent of the 'prairie 
schooners, 1 500 to 1500 teams then daily arriving; and 
with their stoppage, grass would grow in the street," 
was his sagacious declaration. Another objected to 
his efforts in behalf of the Illinois-Central Railroad. 
Said he, "Why, don't you see that the railroad will 
enable farmers to run off their produce to Cairo while 
the canal and river are frozen, which, if kept till spring, 
would have to come to Chicago." In 1847, before 
Chicago possessed a single railroad, he predicted a 
number of lines that would be built, afterward among 
our chief roads; and in 1858, he could say exultingly, 
"Wild as were these views considered, instead of the 
five railroads anticipated, we have twelve important 
trunk lines"; and surely he did his part to effect this 
result. 

The' Hon. William B. Ogden's memory needs no 
word of mine. Your archives contain his life. Yet 
with all his ability, even he did not see the future in 
store for this city as did John S. Wright. Mr. Ogden 
said in his first annual report as president of the 
Galena-and- Chicago Union Railroad, " It can not 
have escaped the observation of all acquainted with 
the region of country to be affected by the construc- 
tion of this important work, that if constructed now 
and extended east from Chicago, around the head of 



19 

Lake Michigan, till it meets the Michigan-Central, as 
it soon will be, it secures to the country through which 
it passes, the great Northwestern thoroughfare for all 
time to come. No other continuous route of railroad 
will ever be made to that great and rapidly-improving 
country lying west and northwest of Lake Michigan 
to the north of the southern end of that lake, if this 
road is established there first. No line to the south 
of it, near enough to compete with it, will be at all 
likely to be built while the business of the country can 
be prosecuted upon the road on which we are now en- 
gaged," etc. In after-years he admitted to Mr. Wright 
his better insight into the future; and in 1868, the 
latter said, "Hon. W. B. Ogden is now the acknowl- 
edged railway king of the West ; and although he used 
to consider my calculations extravagant, no other man 
living, so far as I know, has so anticipated the import- 
ance of railways to this city, present and prospective." 
In 1848, Mr. Wright worked hard for a land-grant 
to secure a north -and -south railroad for Illinois. He 
wrote, printed, and distributed at his own expense, 
6000 copies of petitions to congress in aid of a rail- 
road from the upper and lower Mississippi to Chicago. 
Three different ones were prepared for the South, Illi- 
nois, and the East. His friend Stephen A. Douglas 
said they came to Washington by the hundred, numer- 
ously signed, and had much influence, being the ear- 
liest movement for this object outside of congress, 
except the Cairo Company. He went personally to 
Washington, and spent weeks in laboring for the 
passage of this bill. Sept. 20, 1850, it became a 



20 

law. Congress, thereby established a precedent of 
granting lands in aid of railroad construction. In 
the 41st congress, bills were pending to grant 189,- 
224,920 acres of the public land to railroads; and 
Hie New-York Herald estimated that previous con- 
gresses had granted 220,000,000 acres. This first 
land-grant was for 2,595,053 acres, to be taken by 
odd numbers in alternate sections within six miles of 
the railroad. Poor estimated the cost of the road at 
$30,000,000, and the value of the land at an equal 
amount. 

John S. Wright published a pamphlet in which he 
insisted "that the State would be everlastingly dis- 
honored if the legislature did not devise laws to build 
the road, and disenthrall the State of its enormous 
debt besides, out of the avails of this land-grant." I 
believe he was in favor of the State's constructing the 
road. Had this been done under equally honest and 
able management, it might have changed our entire 
railroad system. The land-grant would have paid for 
the road, and the State could have either derived the 
profit that has gone to the stockholders in dividends, 
and the stock is today quoted at 1.29^, or have given 
its citizens the benefits in lower rates and fares. It 
could have regulated the profits of other roads, as they 
are now regulated by water transportation, and the 
granger movement and outcry against railroad mo- 
nopolies would never have existed. The legislature 
decided to transfer the land-grant to a corporation. 
Mr. Wright then insisted that in return therefore the 
said corporation should, during the continuance of its 



21 

existence, pay ten per cent of its gross earnings from 
operation to the State in lieu of other taxes. The 
legislature in its wisdom reduced this payment to 
seven per cent, although after the bill had passed, the 
president of the Illinois -Central Railroad told him 
they would have paid the ten per cent rather than 
relinquish the project. These payments had amounted 
to $9,833,258.61, Oct. 31, 1884, and paid the State 
debt. So far as I know, no other State possesses a 
like revenue, and Illinois owes these millions chiefly 
to the efforts of John S. Wright. 

In 1 85 1, to make more money for himself, and at 
the same time benefit the farmers who suffered from a 
scarcity of hands, he engaged in the manufacture of 
the Atkins Self- Raking Reaper. Of this he said: 

"Mr. Atkins, a bedridden mechanic, invented the Automa- 
ton Self-Raking Reaper, and gave me a half-interest to patent 
and introduce it. He had the perfection of ingenuity and 
mathematical skill to calculate the dimensions of each piece 
to bring about the required motion for raking, an entirely 
new automatic movement in mechanics, though he had never 
seen a reaper at work; and from his drawings made a model. 
The first reaper was made from that model, twelve times en- 
larged and never altered; yet its first trial was perfect in the 
harvest-field. I built one in 1852; 40 in '53; 300 in '54; 
1200 in '55 ; and 2800 in '56, and never enough to supply the 
demand. The cost of the machine was $90, and it sold for 
$180 cash, credit, $200. Though the business seemed very 
promising, a providential circumstance caused its failure. In 
the winter of '54 and '55, I contracted for ash lumber to build 
3000 machines for 1856. It was stuck up to season on the 
docks at several lake ports; but the summer of 1855, there 
was so much railroad iron coming here, and so little grain to 

2 



22 

go down, that freight prices were inverted. I waited there- 
fore for fall freights to reduce prices up the lakes. I con- 
tracted for four cargoes in October; but the vessels took 
other freight at higher rates, and I made another contract; 
but winter set in four weeks earlier than ever before known, 
and two cargoes were frozen up in the St. Clair River, whence 
it could not be got. It was the thickest lumber for the frames 
and the most essential to have well seasoned. As a conse- 
quence, contracts were made with mills all about here. 
Superheated steam kiln-dryers were erected, and a contract 
let to parties at Dayton, Ohio, to build iooo machines, each 
to be tested in the shop, and then delivered in Baltimore. 
Having myself to choose whether to supervise here or at 
Baltimore, I left for Baltimore. Two thousand machines 
were built here of green lumber, and as each one was fully 
warranted, and they went to pieces under the burning harvest 
sun, an outlay of about $200,000 was required to make good 
this loss. The Dayton machines were not tested, and proved 
to be defectively constructed." 

The crops were poor in '57. A panic swept over 
the country. His debtors could not pay, and with the 
utter prostration of real estate, his property was swept 
entirely away. I have dwelt at length upon this 
matter to show you that this failure was caused by a 
combination of circumstances that no human eye could 
have forseen. The panic of 1857 brought ruin to 
many thousands besides himself! 

In 1859, he formed a project for a land company, 
which in its magnitude was worthy of his gigantic in- 
tellect. His excellent legal friend, the late H. M. 
Morfit of Baltimore, was his counsel. In i860, he 
published a pamphlet in aid of this land-improvement 
company. He obtained an option on thousands of 



2 3 

acres, two million dollars worth, extending in a belt 
entirely around this city in 1867, at from $65 to $450 
per acre. In 1871, it was worth in some instances 
$20,000 per acre. In 1861, a charter was obtained 
from the Illinois legislature, and he went to New York 
to arrange with a good friend, Mr. James T. Soutter, 
ex-president of the Bank of the Republic, who had 
unbounded influence upon capitalists; but ill -health 
and other reasons sent him to Europe, and while 
awaiting his return, Mr. Wright began the study of 
international law, to which he devoted seven years. 
Charles O'Connor examined some of the manuscript 
containing articles for The Journal of Commerce, and, 
upon finishing, he remarked: "Mr. Wright, you are 
surely right as to your views of the nature of our in- 
stitutions." This work grew day by day, until it 
resulted in a volume, entitled, "State Sovereignty — 
National Union." Mr. O'Connor was seen by him 
repeatedly, from time to time, as the work progressed. 
By the spring of 1863, he had gone carefully through 
Barbyrae's French Pufendorf and Grotius, annotat- 
ing on loose sheets. Prof. S. B. F. Morse had been 
his intimate friend for years, and introduced him to 
his brother, Finley, who was engaged in the same line 
of study. Finding the translations of classic works 
worse than nothing, and himself so rusty in the lan- 
guage so well known in childhood, he went to Prof. 
Morse and told him he must have the assistance of a 
thorough Greek and Latin scholar. He sent him to 
his friend, Prof. J. Holmes Agnew, who at once en- 
gaged with his whole heart and soul in helping. This 



24 

volume met with a cool reception from the public ; but 
President Hopkins wrote: "It is the most wonderful 
gathering of the great ideas of the world upon the 
depths of politics ; but my chief wonder is how a man 
always so devoted to business could possibly have got 
the scarce old books to get the writings, that the evi- 
dence of our errors and the uniform tracing of them 
to their sources is the strangest event in our history." 
In January, 1862, he wrote to the Evening Post on 
the federal debt, from which I extract: 

" We must pay whatever rate is necessary to get the 
money — the sinews of war. But with the reestablishment of 
the Union will return a new and firmer confidence in the 
perpetuity of our institutions, and a still stronger and more 
rapid career of prosperity than we have ever known, and the 
value of government securities will have a corresponding 
advance in value. There is no propriety or necessity, it 
appears to me, in allowing the bulk of this advance to enure 
to the speculators, either home or foreign, who will be the 
owners of most of this indebtedness, and who will in the 
main not have advanced the money now when it is needed 
but will have bought it up just as soon as they see the ordeal 
is passed, and our institutions are to be permanent. Govern- 
ment sixes are now under ninety. They have heretofore 
sold at one hundred and twenty-four, or higher, and with a 
return of confidence will go there again, and even beyond. 
We wish no stain of repudiation to rest upon our untarnished 
federal credit, such as rests upon the British government for 
striking down its rate of interest; and yet there is no pro- 
priety in our paying more than other nations whose securi- 
ties are not half what are ours. I would therefore propose 
that a stipulation should be inserted in each loan-bill, and 
alluded to in the bonds; that as the stock advances above 



25 

par, for each five per cent of increase the rate of interest 
shall be reduced, say a half of one per cent; perhaps also 
giving the holder the option of demanding payment of the 
principal, though this option appears to me unnecessary and 
inexpedient. * * * With financial skill, the government 
can advance its credit so that in a few years, if this proposi- 
tion be practicable, the interest will be reduced one-third or 
one-half." 

Has not the result demonstrated the wisdom and 
value of these ideas ? Government bonds bearing 
three per cent interest are now above par! 

In the excitement of the war he thought his land 
company would have no chance, and it was not re- 
sumed until after the fall of Richmond. In 1867, he 
began to prepare a pamphlet urging upon capitalists 
the many advantages of investing in Chicago prop- 
erty; but the work grew until it resulted in a volume 
entitled, "Chicago — Past, Present, and Future." His 
mind was now so disordered that the book contained 
much irrelevant to the subject, but eschewing that it 
was a work of incalculable value to this city, and the 
labor he gave to it was very great. The press spoke 
of it in the most flattering words, but it had a very 
limited sale. He was in Chicago at the time of the 
great fire, and his vivid description was as follows : 

"I was sleeping in a room adjoining my office on East- 
Washington Street that memorable Sunday night. About 
two o'clock a.m., a man came thumping at my door, and sup- 
posing it a drunken loafer who was trying to find his room, I 
made no reply. After three or four tremendous thumpings, 
he cried out, very loud, ' Mr. Wright, are you in here ? ' and 
I asked crossly, 'What do you want ? ' Said he, 'Mr. Wright, 
the whole city is on fire, and this building will be burnt in a 



26 

few minutes.' I turned over to the window, and sure enough, 
the large and blazing coals made me close it; and I put on 
my clothes quicker than ever before, by the light of the fire, 
and went on the first floor. Dr. Heydock was there, things 
all moving. 'Why, Doctor,' said I, 'have we got to move?' 
He replied, 'This building will be burnt in a very few minutes.' 
I returned to my room and did up, in some large paper, a 
Geneva Bible and a lot of business papers, including deeds, 
which I had put together most providentially. With these 
and a satchel, all I could carry, I went out to see the extent 
of the fire, with gratitude unspeakable to my God and the 
kind janitor, for my wonderful escape. I started to join my 
daughter, who was ill at my old friend, Dr. George E. Ship- 
man's, on North-Peoria Street. I tried to cross the South 
Branch at VanBuren Street, but at Adams Street, on State, 
I saw it was impossible, and went north to cross the river at 
State Street; but, in this short space of time, the flames had 
reached the stable on the river. The large coals were falling 
so thickly over the North Division, as well as the South, that 
I could not save my papers going through the terrible rain 
of fire. At Lake Street, I turned again for Twelfth Street, 
and oh! the grandeur of that immense sheet of flame as it 
rose about three o'clock from the very centre of our city! 
Thence crossing the river at Twelfth Street, I soon came to 
the buildings where the fire started, and left my papers with 
a housekeeper on the edge. I then had a walk of a mile and 
a-third in the rear and beside the flame; so that no one could 
have more realized the unexampled conflagration. About 
four o'clock, my daughter's intense anxiety was relieved ! 
With what power and gratitude my head and heart then 
worked upon the future of our city! I saw in this calamity 
sure benefits! 

"The next morning, upon getting my things to go to the 
Adams House, never dreaming that the fire had crossed 
State Street, I was hailed by D. H. Horton, one of the pub- 



27 

lishers of my Chicago book, who was sitting upon a dray at 
the corner of Wabash Avenue and Congress Street. He in- 
formed me of the destruction of the North as of the South 
Side, and his salutation was, 'Well, Wright, what do you think 
nozv of the future of Chicago ? ' I thought an instant and 
replied, 'I will tell you what it is, Horton. Chicago will have 
more men, more money, more business, within five years than 
she would have had without this fire.' Though the remark 
was well spread at once, few realized the truth." 

Not long after this that noble mind gave way so 
completely that Mr. Wright had to be placed in an 
insane asylum. He died in the Pennsylvania Hos- 
pital for the Insane, Sept. 26, 1874, and was interred 
at Rose Hill, Sept. 29. The friends of many years 
who acted as pall -bearers were : Philo Carpenter, 
Gurdon S. Hubbard, E. S. Wadsworth, B. W. Ray- 
mond, Hiram Kennicott, S. Lind, W. Osborn, William 
Bross, T. B. Carter, and George R. Clarke. His life's 
work was done, and his great spirit returned to God, 
who gave it! 

"Like shadows gliding o'er the plains, 
Or clouds that roll successive on, 
Man's busy generations pass; 
And while we gaze, their forms are gone. 

"He lived, he died — behold the sum, 
The abstract of the historian's page — 
Alike in God's all-seeing eye, 
The infant's day, the patriarch's age. 

"To crowd the narrow space of life 
With wise designs and virtue's deeds, 
So shall we wake from death's dread night 
To share the glory that succeeds." 

As stated by Crocker: 



28 

"Dryden's aphorism, that great wit, meaning mental powers 
generally, is nearly allied to insanity, is so true as to have 
become a proverb; but it stands on older and graver au- 
thority, that of Seneca." 

I trust enough has been said to convince you of his 
wonderful mental powers, which for so many years he 
used for the good of this city, that he loved so well. 
Judge Jameson wrote: 

"As the magnetic currents are said to play about the earth, 
enveloping it in a net-work of living forces, so thought plays 
about every subject of human interest. Thinking minds try 
to trace out causes and to forecast results."' 

This John S. Wright did! Speaking of life, he said: 

"Laboring as we do almost exclusively for self and for this 
life, as practical and wise men, we should ever remember that 
as to time the individual is of no account, a miserable, despic- 
able creature, except, precisely, as he fulfills his obligations 
to his city, to his State, to the nation, to his fellow-men, to 
his God! Man has not wisdom to do himself any good what- 
ever, except as he seeks to promote the good of his own 
family, of his own church, of his own State, of his own na- 
tion. He may live and consume for his own good his quan- 
tum of food, drink, and clothing; but cut bono ? " 

I believe that the time will come when Chicago 
must appreciate the magnitude and benefit of his life's 
work. Few of her citizens today realize all that he 
did in the past. Andreas' "History of Chicago" con- 
tains the following: 

"The extracts here given might, in the absence of other 
information, lead to a misconception concering the character 
of John S. Wright. Although a born trader and a bold 



20 

speculator, he was a man of rare virtues, and during his long 
residence in Chicago, was identified with nearly every enter- 
prise and measure calculated to promote its prosperity or 
elevate the educational, mental, moral, or religious standards 
of the city. The benefactions of this wonderfully energetic 
citizen permeated nearly every channel of the life and shewed 
in every phase of her early growth. The building of the 
early railroads, the development of manufactures, the first 
Presbyterian church, Sabbath-schools, and the common-school 
system of the State, the Press; to all these he devoted his 
energies and gave in no stinted measure, Frequent mention 
of him appears elsewhere in this volume." 

Upon hearing of his death, Gen. John A. Clarke 
wrote to me: 

"Your father was one of my earliest Illinois friends. About 
the same age, we spent the winter of 1833-4 m Chicago to- 
gether; boarded at the same log-cabin (Rufus Brown's), slept 
in the same bunk under the counter in your grandfather's 
store, on the corner of Water and State Streets, and during 
all the years that followed, until your father was stricken with 
the disease that terminated his life here, our friendship was 
unbroken. This friendship and the incidents of our early 
association are remembered with a lively interest. I shall 
always think of him as he was in his days of usefulness, when 
all things were possible to him ; when to suggest the failure 
of his great plans was to almost excite him to anger, so cer- 
tain was he of the future." 

J. Wingate Thornton of Boston wrote to me: 

"I am glad to hear from you, and the account of your 
father's last days are painfully interesting. He was a far- 
sighted, sagacious man, much above the average, and had he 
found fellows of equal intelligence and rectitude, the story 
had been far happier! I envy not the callous indifference 



and stupidity which failed to sustain the plans which capital 
in intelligent hands would have carried to public and private 
good. * * * In the future it will be found that Chicago 
will hold in honorable remembrance the name of John S. 
Wright as one of the best men; a pioneer in the cause of 
common schools, popular education, and as one who distinctly 
pointed out the elements which would make her the great 
central mart of the United States. Time will vindicate his 
name and fame." 

The Rev. J. Ambrose Wight wrote to me when I 
informed him of this my proposed paper: 

"I am glad to recall to the public mind the service your 
father did, not for Chicago alone, but for Illinois, and in fact 
for the then Northwest. I came to Chicago to live and to 
be in his employ in May, 1843, an d was with him on salary 
or as partner till the close of 1855, with a short exception. 
He had a clearer insight of what Chicago was to be than any 
other man I knew in that time. His mind, like that of his 
mother, ran upon public interests; not those specially of the 
nation, but of his own city, State, and neighborhood. He 
was constantly planning in the earlier part of this time for 
these interests. He saw clearly that Illinois was to be a 
great State, and Chicago a great city. His habit of forecast 
in these matters often brought upon him ridicule from those 
who were content with things, as they were, and resisted im- 
provements. As his modes of expressing his convictions and 
impulses, I recall his establishment of The Prairie Farmer. 
There was not another man in the State at that time who 
would have done it. And few had, at first, faith in his suc- 
cess with it. And though he had no special training for such 
an undertaking, not being bred a farmer, he carried it on suc- 
cessfully for two years, and established it. The event shewed 
his prescience. There was need of just such a paper at that 
time. The settlers upon prairie lands had no guide in regard 



to a great number of questions which it was necessary to 
settle, and only experience and intercommunication could 
settle them: 'Will the cultivated grasses grow on these prairie 
lands ? ' 4 Can sheep be successfully kept here ? ' Will our 
accustomed fruits succeed ? and what kind shall we cultivate, 
and how treat them ? ' ' How shall we fence these open 
lands ? ' These and the like questions, now of far less diffi- 
culty, if any, were then matters of great moment; for the 
settlers were poor and could not afford experiments. The 
matter of harvesting crops, too, was one in which the paper 
was an active and influential instrument. 

"There was another great interest which nobody attended 
to till Mr. Wright led off in it. I mean that of public-school 
education. Illinois had no system of schools. Such as were 
in existence were private or local affairs. He worked up a 
system of public schools, and, I think, drafted a law, which 
he talked and wrote into favor, and got it through the legis- 
lature, which was then no easy matter, for the south part of 
the State was reluctant; but he had made the acquaintance of 
leading men all through the State, in all its neighborhoods; 
and that law is the basis of the school system of Illinois to 
this day. It has, of course, undergone many alterations. The 
school system of Chicago owes more to him for its inception 
than to any one man. It started by his efforts. There ral- 
lied to it, early, a body of men, whose names are attached to 
the several schools of the city today, while none that I am 
aware of bears his name. And very possibly those men have, 
if alive, forgotten that he was the man whose enthusiasm ex- 
cited first their own. The reason for this is patent to those 
who knew him well. His perceptive faculties were not always 
supported by reflective ones. He saw and devised and grew 
enthusiastic till he had got others to take hold, when his in- 
terest in a matter often declined, and he did not carry out 
his schemes. This peculiarity attached to his management 
of his private affairs. He ought to have been immensely 



wealthy. He bought with great sagacity, but his after-man- 
agement was not successful. He did not adhere to and make 
a success of his own good planning. As a sample: After he 
had installed me in The Prairie Farmer, he left for New York 
and Washington to be absent three weeks; but I neither saw 
or heard from him in eleven months; yet when he returned 
he had purchased a property which in a very few years was 
valued at two millions of dollars. This peculiarity made him 
seem visionary to many, and has caused his real shrewdness 
and benevolent forecast to be forgotten. 

"Another of his public acts I well remember. The State, 
by the influence of the southern part of it, had passed a law 
restricting interest to six or seven per cent. The merchants 
of that section suffered farmers' accounts to run for a long 
time, charging interest at high rates, which gave rise to the 
law. It worked very badly for the north of the State, and 
especially for Chicago; for money could not be loaned at six 
per cent, and money was greatly wanted. Mr. Wright drew 
up a brief law allowing ten per cent on money loaned. He 
printed the law, with a brief argument for it, on slips, which 
he sent by thousands through the State, and the law was car- 
ried, to the immense relief of Chicago, and, in fact, of the 
whole State. 

"Previous to this he had advocated with all his might and 
assisted to secure the 'two-mill tax,' which relieved the State 
of an incubus of debt of sixteen millions, and which operated, 
for some years to hold it back from prosperity. The law was 
stoutly opposed, by its immigrant population especially, who' 
had brought with them from Europe a hatred of taxation, 
though many of them had very little property to be taxed. 

"I remember these things very well, for I not only heard, 
him talk enthusiastically of them, but in my way assisted him. 
in getting them before the public. I have always believed, 
that Chicago and the State owed him more than they knew 
or at least recognized. He was a perfectly self-reliant man,. 



33 

and the independence of his opinions often avoked for the 
time a distrust of them, or even an opposition to them ; and 
his later misfortunes served perhaps to cause forgetfulness of 
the real services he had rendered to the public." 

And now, in conclusion, to those among you who 
extended to him your friendship to the end, unalienated 
by the infirmities of disease, or the pecuniary misfort- 
unes that came to him, I would tender my most sin- 
cere and heartful thanks ! 

Mr. Chairman, permit me to present to the Chicago 
Historical Society his portrait, in behalf of my brother, 
Chester Dewey, and myself. It was painted by his 
friend, Mrs. St. John, formerly of Chicago, now of 
New York, and represents him as he appeared at the 
age of fifty-five. 



Lore 



TRIBUTE OF HON. WILLIAM BROSS. 



At the close of the address, Ex-Lieut. Gov. Wrru 
Bross moved that a vote of thanks be tendered to Mr. 
Wright for his discriminating and very excellent ad- 
dress. It was seconded and unanimously adopted. 

On offering the resolution, Gov. Bross said that he 
was very glad that his son, waiving all delicacy, had 
spoken so freely and so fairly of the character and the 
life-work of his eminent father, John S. Wright. It 
was his good fortune to have known him long and well. 
Indeed, he was the first citizen of Chicago with whom 
he became acquainted, and it were well if each one's 
recollection could dwell on incidents equally pleasant. 
On his way to this city, in the early morning of May 
12th, 1848, between Kalamazoo and St. Joseph, there 
to take the steamer Sam Ward — that was four years 
before the railways from the East reached Chicago — he, 
with other passengers, became very tired of being 
tumbled about in the stage coach. At the change of 
horses, about daylight, Mr. B., with several others, 
started ahead on foot, and the result was a very refresh- 
ing walk of two or three miles. Here the speaker fell 
in company with a slim, wiry man, whom he at once 
found to be a most intelligent and courteous companion. 



36 

Chicago's position with reference to the system of lake 
navigation, and also with reference to the vast and 
fertile prairies between the lakes and the Rocky Moun- 
tains, and the certainty that it would become the com- 
mercial capital of the upper Mississippi valley, were all 
detailed in graphic and enthusiastic language by Mr. 
Wright to the willing ears of his listener, eager to gain 
all the information he could get in regard to the posi- 
tion and the prospects of his new home in the West. 
More than thirty-five years study and travel by stage- 
coach and steamer, and by all the main railway lines 
between the lakes and the Rocky Mountains, the build- 
ing and commercial statistics of the city, now rounding 
up into the enormous amount of more than a thousand 
millions of dollars annually, have simply filled out the 
outlines of the picture given him that May morning 
in the wild woods of Michigan by John S. Wright. 
Is it any wonder that he should cherish the memory of 
Mr. Wright as one of the best informed and most in- 
teresting men he ever met. 

This was not all. With his usual courtesy to 
strangers, he called at the hotel en the Sabbath, and 
took Mr. B. to his own seat in the Second Presby- 
terian church, and in the course of a week or two 
introduced him to Mayor Woodworth and most of the 
leading business men of the city. 

In 1849 Mr. B. said he was the partner of the Rev. 
Dr. J. A. Wight in the publication of the Prairie 
Herald, and Mr. Wight was also the editor of the 
Prairie Farmer. As the office of the two papers was 
in the same room, he then saw much of Mr. Wright. 



37 

He often spent hours talking of the interests of the 
farmers, in all their varied relations, showing an inti- 
mate and accurate acquaintance with whatever could 
promote their prosperity and welfare. Agricultural 
implements, the most profitable crops and how they 
could be best and most economically produced, har- 
vested and brought to market ; our lake marine and its 
relations to the prosperity of the city and the vast farm- 
ing districts west of it ; Chicago as a successful manu- 
facturing centre, because food for operatives must 
always be cheaper here than anywhere else upon the 
continent ; railway prospects ; in fact, everything that 
related to the political and commercial interests of the 
city and the Northwest, were discussed with a breadth 
of comprehension and accuracy of detail that seemed 
almost an inspiration from some source far above the 
grasp of human intelligence. 

The memorial has given many of the leading facts 
and enterprises in the life-work of Mr. Wright, and 
were it proper and did time permit, he would, if possi- 
ble, add intensity and more extended illustration, to the 
biographical sketch. Take only a single example. 
Mr. Wright was one of the first to see the importance 
and grasp the possibility of a railway from the lakes to 
the Gulf of Mexico. The land-grant which had suc- 
cessfully completed the I llinois-and- Michigan Canal, 
furnished the text for a similar grant for this great 
national railway project, Mr. Wright's pen did much 
to make it familiar to the people, and in the winter of 
1849-50 a bill was introduced into Congress making a 
grant of lands to the states through which it would run 
3 



38 

for the construction of the road. There it lay for 
weeks and months, attracting very little attention. 
Mr. Wright saw what action was needed, and that he 
was the man that must take it. At his own expense 
he printed thousands of circulars, stating briefly the 
necessity of the road to the welfare of the nation, with 
a petition to Congress to pass the bill. At that time 
such documents went by mail free to postmasters, and 
to his personal knowledge he kept his clerk busy for 
weeks sending these to every postmaster between the 
lakes and the Gulf. The requests to the postmasters 
to get signers and forward the petitions to their con- 
gressmen were promptly attended to, and in the early 
summer sessions of Congress the petitions came in by 
thousands, and members were astonished at the unani- 
mous demand of their constituents for the railway. 
Thus our Senators Douglas and Shields and Repre- 
sentatives Wentworth and others saw their opportunity, 
and the bill was passed Sept. 20, 1850. Now look at 
our thousands of miles of railway, and grasp, if you 
can, the influence they have upon the growth, the hap- 
piness and the prosperity of this city and the great 
Northwest. The money and the moving spirit that 
started effectively this wonderful progress were fur- 
nished by John S. Wright. 

In according the leading position thus given to Mr. 
Wright in this and other improvements, it may be 
asked what was left for the founders of the city — great 
men they certainly were — to do ? He was the leading 
spirit mainly in the intuitive perceptions he had of the 
forces on which his predictions of the future greatness 



39 

of the city and of the country tributary to it were 
founded. Like many others, his mind ran too far 
ahead of his cotemporaries to be appreciated. He 
lived a generation before his time. Hence he was 
considered by many a dreamer — a man whose conclu- 
sions could not be trusted. While he was great and 
grasping as to the events of the future, hundreds and 
thousands of others, by their substantial character and 
steady purposes, wrought directly to the fulfilment of 
Mr. Wright's conclusions. They had and held the 
position among the capitalists and leading business 
men of the country that gave them the command of the 
means to build warehouses, move our crops, transport 
them over the great lakes ; establish banks, build and 
run our railways, and generally to secure the prosperity 
and the progress of the Northwest. Such men were 
Wm. B. Ogden, John B. Turner, B. W. Raymond, 
Gurdon S. Hubbard, Thomas Richmond, Charles 
W T alker, William H. Brown, Geo. Smith, Daniel Brain- 
ard, F. C. Sherman, J. Y. Scammon, and I might men- 
tion scores of others, most of whom are passed away — 
all great men, whose substantial business character en- 
abled them to accomplish results, from the very enthu- 
siasm of his character impossible to Mr. Wright. It 
would be absurd to attribute to any one man more than 
a moiety of the grand results — more wonderful than 
any achievements of the past — which the Queen City 
of the lakes and the country, whose commercial centre 
she is, have made a simple but substantial reality. Mr. 
Wright could see in prophetic vision, and his sterling 
common sense grasped the means and the character of 



40 

the great men around him, by whose efforts his splen- 
did conceptions would be realized. Great and impos- 
sible as they then appeared, all men now will concede 
that our thousands of miles of railway, making Chicago 
the central station between the Atlantic and Pacific 
oceans; our vast commerce, derived from millions of 
intelligent, prosperous freemen, who are subduing the 
fertile regions west of us; our lake marine, carrying 
more than twice the values of the entire foreign traffic 
of the nation ; our city, with its great stores and busy 
manufactures, its tremendous live-stock interests, and 
its immense grain shipments, and its ceaseless growth, 
sure to round up to a million people before the century 
closes ; these facts and such as these, patent to the com- 
prehension of all mankind, have more than fulfiled all 
Mr. Wright's brightest anticipations. Let Chicago 
always hold his name in vivid and honored remem- 
braance. 



1900 



